A friend of my late mother would say, "Excuses, Excuses, what are you pretending not to know?" and she would push until you faced the answer you were avoiding. When she would be on a personal growth kick, I would learn a lot about myself, and cry a lot. Those lessons were painful. I prefer "AHA" moments that are less painful. She started me down the personal growth path and I have learned a lot from it. I think the most difficult part is getting past what ever you fear. Taking that first step into the unknown is such a scary moment, and as much support as you may have, it IS still something YOU have to do. No one else can do it for you. It's nice to know others have been in your position and survived, but until you have something in front of you that is so powerful you HAVE to push forward, little progress can be made.

That's why I am following instructions and posting as suggested. Support is great, and I am glad to be here. I have my box of tissues, if needed, but I hope they won't be. :-)

I'm from Serbia and that's been my "obstacle", better yet an excuse for me.I've been a graphic designer for 5 years now and 98% of my clientele consists of people from US. Me living here is not a problem when it comes to that, but it is a challenge, one I will and must overcome and conquer, when it comes to me expanding in different directions like creating online passive income.

I'm super late lol but this was great! Love the validation that feeding into your own insecurities is complete bs! I had that issue for a LOOOOONG time and on top of every insecurity i had for myself, i had numerous family members to agree and add to why i was going to fail. Then one day I woke up and decided to check my insecurities at the door! Its no time for that in the business world and after that everything has been nothing but amazing. Also liked the part about staying humble, i'm always so eager to learn, but what do you do when the people you admire are too consumed with themselves to help you learn and grow? its like some want to make sure you don't learn more so you can never be equal or better to them...

@Rich20Something Reminds me of this quote... “Don't you dare take the lazy way. It's too easy to excuse yourself because of your ancestry. Don't let me catch you doing it! Now -- look close at me so you will remember. Whatever you do, it will be you who do.” ― John Steinbeck, East of Eden

The 2nd tip on staying humble about learning was awesome. It's something I definitely need to work on. Being an entreprenuer takes a very unique combination of confidence in your ability to do something (tip 1) and humbleness/wanting to learning more (tip 2). Also working for yourself, I've found that while my overall stress level decreased exponentially, starting out I'm a little worried about whether my business plan will work out. I think this fear of failure is definitely something that holds me back. What do you do to convince yourself to make the jump day after day?

But great observation :) Web design and especially programming are great examples of fields where those with the knowledge are in many cases condescending to noobs because they are SCARED that their coveted knowledge will become accessible to the masses, and they will no longer be revered as wise and "special". So they try to obscure things, when you go on forums looking to learn, I feel like they intentionally speak cryptically or at an intermediate/advanced level to try to frustrate you. Same thing with car dealerships. They want to keep the knowledge for themselves so that you NEED them. But you don't. You just need the willingness to learn and the persistence to push through the hard parts!

@SergioValentin Thanks, Sergio. And those are just SOME of the things we use to hold ourselves back. Everyone has something that gives them and edge...but it's so easy to assume that high-achievers are just better equipped than us...when really, that's not always the case. Looking at someone from your perspective, you can't see all their flaws and shortcomings.

@Albert Engel Hi Albert - great point about confidence combined with humility. And you're right...taking the leap day after day is scary. But I think it's gotten easier. The first thing that helps me is that I acted for a few years, did some TV stuff etc...so I was already in the mindset of "it's OK to be hungry, work is going to be scarce, this won't be easy, etc." That really helped my mentality and ability to deal with pitfalls. It's like, ok, I have $10 left to my name...what else is new? I'm still moving.

And don't let that be a "it will work for him, but not me because..." scenario. Everyone can adopt that mindset. I think if you go IN to this thing knowing how hard it's going to be, then there's nothing that will surprise you, and emotionally you'll be safe. Expect it to be blisteringly hard...and once you've accepted that, it's easy.

As for doing it day after day, for me, little wins are EXTREMELY motivating. I mean, to me, the little wins are more motivating than the big ones sometimes. Trying a strategy out and having it work, cold emailing someone important and having them respond...when those thing pay off, it's a perpetual ego boost. So the key is, set tons of LITTLE bars for yourself that you KNOW you can knock down easily...then purposely go out and accomplish them - that creates motivation in your every day environment, and makes it easier to pull through.

@Rich20Something@BashesJohnson < Web design and especially programming are great examples of fields where those with the knowledge are in many cases condescending to noobs because they are SCARED that their coveted knowledge will become accessible to the masses, and they will no longer be revered as wise and "special" <---

--- Ditto on this one. And that's why learning to code has become an important priority -- years from now, people who don't know how to code may end up being treated like "illiterates" as more and more people depend on programmable machines and interfaces.

@Rich20Something nice! Rightfully said, that new paradigm shift can encourage everyone to assume we have a more than fair playground. Especially understanding that, they used their strength and not their short-coming succeed and your strength maybe their short-coming making their method for success a model that was made for you!

Not to mention it's added marketability if you can "communicate" with a computer. Businesses and jobs nowadays rely on the web, software, gadgets, and other devices that all function via different languages. Even something that used to be as "human" as writing, advertising and portfolio-creation now have SEO, Web Development and other technicalities added to the process. It really would do well to learn their languages. At least, I'd enjoy learning to code far more than learning Mandarin. No offense mean to anyone :)

@hazelmaepan@BashesJohnson I think what it will come down to is whether you want to be a person that GIVES computers directions or someone that TAKES directions from the computer. I'd rather be in the first group.